We’re proud to announce the next major update for wpDataTables plugin, which makes it even easier to create and edit tables. Starting from now you receive another editor interface, which is very similar to standard spreadsheet-editor (Excel, Google Spreadsheets, LibreOffice, OpenOffice). But this is not the only new feature! Full list follows.

Excel-like editor

Starting from version 1.7 you receive one more interface that is very similar to Excel and other spreadsheet editors. It does not replace the standard wpDataTables editor interface fully, but rather provides an alternative, which can be used both in front-end and back-end. It introduces lots of new features that standard wpDataTables editor didn’t have, which will make your interaction with tables faster and more effective, especially when you’re working with numerical data:

Browse through cells with arrow keys. You can use the standard arrow keys (and Enter) to browse between columns and rows and to modify exactly the cell that you need – or to quickly type in the data. Note please that the speed of interaction depends on your host.

Selecting cells. Copy and paste columns and rows. Now, same as in Excel, you can use the mouse to select a range of cells (see screenshot above), copy it, and paste in a different place. You can copy content of one column to another, or of one row to another, etc.

Drag and drop to fill cells.Duplicating selected content. Bulk-create rows. Same as in spreadsheet-editors now you can select a block of cells, click the mouse above a small square in the bottom right, and drag it down to duplicate the selected blocks content in the rows below. Even if the new rows do not exist. This can be used e.g. to duplicate a single row 30 times, if you need 30 similar rows – in previous versions of wpDataTables you would need to click ‘New’ 30 times to do this.

Bulk delete rows. With the Excel-like editor you can select multiple rows, open the context menu by right-clicking the selected range, and choose “Delete rows” to delete all of them at once.

Copy&Paste from external apps. You can copy&paste table content from external apps – just create the columns with same structure as in source, and then you can paste the data from Excel, Google Spreadsheets, LibreOffice, or simply from tab-separated table data.

Grouping in Charts

Previously each new table row was treated as separate chart series. This didn’t work for all the tables, as some of the tables have multiple rows referring to the same chart entry. E.g. see this table:

wdt_ID

Name

Apples

Bananas

Pears

1

Paul

1

2

3

2

John

3

2

7

3

George

5

6

2

4

Ringo

2

6

1

5

Paul

2

3

7

6

John

1

7

3

As you see, we have 2 rows for John, and 2 rows for Paul – but it’s logical that these rows shouldn’t be separate series for the chart. So now when you turn on the Grouping feature, rows with same labels would be treated as a single entry, summing up all the values in other cells.

Import Google Spreadsheets to WordPress using Table Constructor

However, these tables couldn’t be made editable, and weren’t fully integrated to WordPress database. Starting from version 1.7 you can also import the tables to MySQL database from Google Spreadsheets, and edit the data in WordPress afterwards.

Full Video Overview

If you do not want to check the new features separately, watch the full video overview of wpDataTables 1.7 new features:

Beta Testing

wpDataTables 1.7 is going to be in Beta testing phase for 2-4 weeks to make sure everything is completely stable before the official release. If you would like to become a Beta tester (possible only for existing wpDataTables users) please let us know in the support system. Thank you!

One question for you: do you prefer the video overview for next versions to be cut in multiple short videos, as these are perhaps easier to digest, or in one long video as this one? Let us know in comments here – or in YouTube!